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Maine Laptop Program Serves As Positive Model for Global Education Initiative

Posted on: Tuesday, 10 January 2006, 18:00 CST

The Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI), which provides laptops for seventh- and eighth-grade students and their teachers, has inspired the One Laptop per Child program, a global initiative to supply free laptops to children in developing countries all over the world.

"It is important that we provide students with a level of education that enables them to compete and succeed in a global economy," said Governor John Baldacci. "Giving children ready access to computer technology is an innovative way to help them thrive in school."

Nicholas Negroponte, Wiesner Professor of Media Technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and founding chairman of MIT's Media Laboratory, is the driving force behind the One Laptop per Child program. He presented his global laptop initiative to technology industry leaders at the Pop!Tech conference in Camden in October 2005, which became the focus of a November 2005 Fortune article.

"Although Maine is not on the same size scale as Silicon Valley or the Research Triangle, the technology generated within its borders is quite impressive," said Fortune publisher Michael Federle. "The fact that a visionary like Nicholas Negroponte has recognized the Maine laptop program speaks volumes about the State's capabilities as a technological hub."

Negroponte cites the Maine laptop program as a successful and positive model on how laptops can serve as learning tools and enhance children's education.

"Maine has shown the huge value of using a laptop across all of one's studies," said Negroponte. "Maine's program demonstrates how laptops can serve as a window into the world and a tool with which to think."

Since MLTI introduced laptops into junior high classrooms in 2002, nearly 34,000 students and 300 teachers at 240 middle schools have utilized the program. According to a 2004 report conducted by the Maine Education Policy Research Institute, more than 70 percent of students surveyed reported that laptops helped them learn more effectively, produce better work and be more organized. More than 75 percent of teachers surveyed said having the laptops helped them better meet Maine's statewide learning standards.

"If you get those kind of results, I'm going to build the machines," Negroponte said. "There's enough passion and enough kids that are able to do things they were not able to do before that justifies it."

The Maine laptop program was recognized as the only one of its kind in the world by fDi magazine, a sister publication to the Financial Times, in 2005.

"Maine's laptop initiative has served as a national model for improved and accelerated learning and is preparing our students for success in the technology-driven New Economy," said Jack Cashman, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development. "We are happy to hear about the One Laptop per Child program and we wish it great success in its endeavors."

Maine has one of the highest high school graduation rates in the U.S., according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This year, Morgan Quitno Press named Maine the fifth-smartest state in the nation in its annual Education State Rankings, which compares the elementary and secondary education programs of each of the 50 states.

One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a non-profit organization created by Nicholas Negroponte, will design, manufacture and distribute laptops to children in the most remote and poorest parts of the world. Quanta Computer Inc. of Taiwan will begin rolling out the laptops in late 2006 with 5 to 15 million units going to children around the world, including China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria and Thailand. Representatives from Brazil and China researched Maine's laptop program in preparation for the OLPC program.

The OLPC initiative and a $100 hand-cranked laptop were unveiled at the United Nations-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November 2005. The hand-cranked laptops operate at about half the speed of a commercial laptop and feature a low-power display. The wireless laptops will use an open-source operating system but will not offer large amounts of memory space. The hand-crank will be a power option when electricity is not available. Governments and charitable donations will fund the purchase of the machines and children will own them.

Source: Business Wire

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